I've just started to read a book i think some of you might like. The Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky. He found, in the Library of Congress, a file of a WPA that was a collection of bits and pieces about food from different regions of the country. The information was to result in a book titled "America Eats"but it never got edited and published. The cover statement says: " A portrait of American food - before the nat'l highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation's food was seasonal, regional and traditional -from the lost WPA files."
It has some recipes-sort of, at least the ingredients, i. e. Sweet pumpkin pickle from VT, Long Island rabbit stew, Kentucky spoon bread, Mississippi molasses pie, Ind pork cake, Oregon salmon bbq. There are different words for the same food in different parts of the country, their is poetry abt food, how and when people ate, etc, etc.
Kurlansky mentioned that growing up in the 40's he remembers only A & W Root Beer and Howard Johnson as chain restaurants, i cldn't think of any others, either except for Woolworth's, which was really a 5&10, and that's what we called it, " the 5&10," not the "5&10 cent store!" What time did you have "dinner?" Did you have "supper"?
Some of the paasages are beautiful, such as the description of Vermont during the "sugaring-off" if the maple syrup. It seems that global warming is impacting the maple sugar production also because there nights must be cold enough, long enough to freeze the sap at night and to thaw in the daytime. Also, acid rain is effecting the soil creating smaller production.
I'll add some more tidbits as i read along..........jean
